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THE 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 



OF 



FLORA MCDONALD: 



V 
BY JAMES BA^KS, Esq., 

FAYETTEVILI. E, N. C. 



FAYETTEVILLE : 

PRINTED BY EDWARD J. HALE h SON. 

1857. 



THE 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 



OF 



FLORA MCDONALD. 



V. 



f^^ 



BY JAMES BANKS, Esq., 

FAYETTEVILLE, N. C» 



i^AYETTEVlLLE i 
PRINTED BY EDWARD J. HALE & SON. 

i85r. 



TJ 



IE-PUBLISHED FROM THE UNIVERSITY NIAGAZINE.l 



^ LEOTUEE 



ON 



THE LIFE km CHARACTER OF FLORA McDOMLD, 

BY JAMES BAKKS, Esq., OF FAYETTEYILLE. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST 



James the Sixth of Scotland, and First of England, was the 
common progenitor of the two families which so long contended 
for the throne of Great Britain. He was succeeded in 1625 by 
Charles the First, who was beheaded in 1649. Charles the Se- 
cond, son of Charles the First, after the death of Cromwell was 
placed on the British throne in 1660. He died without issue, 
and was succeeded in 1685 by his brother, Duke of York, un- 
der the title of James the Second, who, in consequence of his 
adherence to the rites and ceremonies of the Bomish Church, 
was expelled the kingdom, and his own daughter Mary, with 
William, grandson of Charles the First, succeeded to the throne. 
Mary died in 1695 and William in 1701. They were followed 
by Anne, another daughter of James the Second, who died 
without issue in 1714, leaving a brother James, son of James 
the Second. This personage is known in history as the Pre- 
tender, or Chevalier St. George. In 1715 he unfurled his ban- 
ner at Brae Mar, Scotland, but was defeated, and, like his fa-, 
ther, banished the kingdom, and tlie crown was given by act 
of Parliament to the nearest Protestant heir, George, Elector 
of Hanover, great grandson of James the First, the common 
progenitor of tliose families who assumed the sovereignty, to 



^x 




the exclusion of his cousin, the Chevalier. In 1727 George the 
First died, and was succeeded by his son George the Second. 

In the meantime, the Chevalier St. George had married Cle- 
mentina, grand-daughter of John Sobieski, the heroic king of 
Poland, by whom he had a son, Charles Edward, bom in 1720, 
the hero of the Kebellion of 1745, and one other son, known 
in history as the Cardinal de York. 

The Chevalier, or James himself, says Chambers, "was a man 
of weak character, to whicli the failure of liis attempt in 1715 
is mainly to be attributed. But the blood of Sobieski seems to 
have corrected that quality in his eldest son, whose daring and 
talent, as displayed in 1745-6, did everything but retrieve the 
fortunes of his family." 

After the defeat of James in 1715, he Qed to France, and 
there lived in retirement and insignificance, upon the bounty 
of his friends and adherents, without making another effort to 
claim the sovereignty of Britain, which was liis by all the rules 
of descent established in the kingdom. 

Far different was the conduct of his eldest son, Prince Charles 
Edward. To regain the crown of his fathers was the dream of 
his youth, and became the daring and romantic effort of his 
early manhood. In his twenty-fifth year he landed in the High- 
lands of Scotland, without men, money, or munitions of war, 
with seven attendants, hoping to regain the crown of which his 
family had been deprived for fifty-seven years; relying, as he 
said, upon the justice of his cause and the valor of the hardy 
sons of the mountain, upon whom his hopes of success chiefly 
depended. 

By his talent, eloquence and address, he so operated on the 
feelings of the various clans, that soon the "fiery cross" tra- 
versed the mountain and the vale, calling the clansmen to that 
last gathering of the "Highland Host," in which a halo of glory 
was reflected on their prowess and arms, far beyond what they 
had hitherto attained. 

Placing himself at their head, he displayed valor and skill 
such as might have been expected in the descendant of a Bruce 
and Sobieski. With his untrained soldiers he overran and took 
possession of Scotland, penetrated England to Derby, within 
ninety miles of London, and caused the king to tremble and 






prepare for an abdication of his throne. For various reasons 
the Prince determined to retreat and spend the winter in the 
Highlands of Scotland, rather than advance on the capital of 
the British Empire. 

From that hour his star began to wane, and was extinguished 
on the fatal field of Culloden, where his brave comrades fell 
by his side, and he himself became a fugitive and outlaw in the 
land of his fathers, over which for the preceding six months he 
had reigned supreme. 

I have thus briefly alluded to the genealogical and historical 
incidents in the history of Prince Charles Edward, whose dar- 
ing and romantic career has furnished ample material for the 
historian, novelist and poet: whose name will live forever in- 
dissolubly associated in story and in song with that of Flora 
McDonald, whose "Life and Character" form the subject of the 
present address. 

Flora McDonald, patronymically designated Flora, the 
daughter of Eanald, the son of Angus, youngest of Milton, was 
born at Milton in the island of Uist, Argyleshire, Scotland, in 
1720. Her earlier years were spent in the solitude of her na- 
tive Uist, whence she could hear the roar of Corrievreckan, and 
behold the mountains of Currada and Skye rise in solemn gran- 
deur towards the heavens; or from her brother's home at Cor- 
rodale, she had a commanding view of Loch Boisdale and Loch 
Skipj3ort, which separate Uist from the main land and the isle 
of Skye. Midst scenes of grandeur and sublimity, the earlier 
years of Flora passed away — but her father having died in a 
few years after. Flora's mother married Hugh McDonald of 
Armadale, in the Isle of Skye. 

In Skye, learning flourished beyond any other portion of the 
Highlands, and Flora possessed all the advantages that those 
ancient seminaries could afford; and at quite an early age her 
mind was stored with learning, as well as deeply imbued with 
a veneration for the system of Clanship, and loyalty for the ex- 
iled house of Stuart. 

In her teens she was sent to Edinburgh to complete her stu- 
dies, and to acquire the grace and polish suited to her station 
in life. That she succeeded in the acquisition of all the grace- 
ful accomplishments then taught, may be gathered from the 

>C ^/y /;^4^/ ^^^^ c^c^^? ^^1^ ^^^^^ 



r ^ ■^ XV 



fact that Dr. Johnson, in his "Tour of the Hebrides," speaks of 
her as a woman of middle stature, soft features, gentle manners 
and elegant presence; and years ago I heard Malcolm McKay, 
who had been in early life a Cornet in the British army, re- 
mark, that he had seen the Queen of England and many of her 
attendants, but for grace and dignity Flora McDonald excelled 
all the women he ever beheld: that it was worth a day's ride to 
see her graceful manner of sitting, or rising from a chair — that 
there was a perfection of ease and grace in that simple act, that 
could be felt but not described. 

Flora McDonald was related to the Clanranald branch of 
the family of that name, and was consequently descended from 
a family of heroes, whose deeds of valor had afforded themes 
for the immortal Ossian, and whose prowess had well nigh pre- 
vented the removal of the Scottish capital from Dunstaft'nage, 
the Palace of the ancient kings of Scotland, whence the chair 
of Scone was brought to crown the royal Bruce, and now forms 
an appendage to the regalia of Britain. 

But it suits not our present purpose to dwell upon the line- 
age, personal appearance, or general characteristics of Flora 
McDonald. 

In Waverly, Sir Walter Scott has beautifully and truthfully 
delineated her general traits, and her loyalty to the House of 
Stuart is represented as the ruling, governing principle of her 
life; and we feel assured tliat no one whose memory bears a 
distinct recollection of the enthusiastic Flora Mclvor, will be 
surprised to learn that when Prince Charlie landed in Scotland, 
and raised the royal standard on the hills of Moidart, and called 
the chiefs of McDonald, Lochiel and Glengarry to uphold that 
banner, that the young and enthusiastic Flora was heard in 
her Highland home amongst her own clansmen to exclaim — yes 

"Up with that banner, 

Let forest winds fan her, 
It has waved o'er the Stuarts ten ages and more, 

In sport we'll attend her. 

In battle defend her, 
With hearts and with hands like our fathers before." 

But when that banner was trailed in the du^t at Culloden, 
and her young Prince was seeking an asylum and a hiding 
place in the glens and mountains, over which his ancestors had 



>.^'- 



CO long exercised dominion and control: when he was pereee^ 
ted, and hunted from mountain and cave, and from hillside t® 
glen: when the victor of Culloden — the Duke of Cumberland — 
had hemmed him in, as with a wall of fire, on the little island 
of Uist, and had planted sentinels in every glen and mountain 
gorge, and stationed patrols at every ferry and every pass: 
when a fleet of British cruisers had surrounded the island it- 
eelf : when false friends had deserted him, and the timid shrunk 
back in despain when a price was set upon his head, and his 
enemies believed his destruetion eertain, and his friends de- 
spaired of his escape: when men of iron nerves, accustomed 
from infancy to the smoke and din of battle, quailed and were 
wnable to effect his deliverance: Then was the true nobility that 
animated the soul of Flora McDonald manifested to the world, 
when in the solitude of her mountain home, in the beautiful 
language of the jwet, she exclaimed — 

^'Thj spirit, Independence, let m-e share, 

Lord of the lion heart, and eagle eye, 
Thy fiteps I follow, with my bosom bare, 

Nor heed the storm that howls along the sfey:" 

SO that I am enabled to save my sovereign Prince, or perish in 
the attempt She but gave utterance to a lofty sentiment and 
heroic devotion worthy the daughter of Claeranald, and which 
of itself would have justified the minstrel of the J^orth in say- 
ing— 

**OJi, woman, in our hoiirs of ease^ 
Uneertain, eoy, and hard to please, 
An4 variable as the shade 
By the light quivering aepea made. 
When pain and sickness rack the brow, 
A ministering angel thoul" 

And truly '^a ministering angel" was^Flora McDonald to the 
hunted, wandering, despairing Prince; and it detracts nothing 
from the merit of her conduct, that when Captain 'Neal and Lady 
Clanranald first invoked her aid in his behalf, she replied, that his 
escape from the island was a thing impossible; that the McDon- 
ald, McLeod and Campbell militia already commanded every 
pass; that the Prince was known to be upon the little isle; that 
a price was set upon his head, amounting to thirty thousand 
pounds; that the white sails of England covered Loch Skipport 



8 

and Locli Boisdale, and cruised about towards the sunny c]iDr>e 
of France, so that a sparrow could not escape be,vond their lines 
without their knowledge or consent. 

On the contrary, it exalts into sublimity the heroism of the 
act, and discloses that she knew the imminent peril in which 
she placed her own life in the attempt to save his; and though 
reluctant to enter upon the discharge of the task, yet when she 
"was conducted to a miserable "shieling" on the estate of her 
brother at Corrodale, in which the Prince had taken shelter, 
and beheld him gaunt, weak and half-famished, and his clothes 
in tatters from the exposure of two months solitary wandering 
and hiding in the glens and caves of a sterile mountainous coun- 
try, her woman's heart relented, the sympathy of her nature 
yielded to the pressure of the demand, a spirit of romantic 
chivalry, devotion and loyalty to her vanquished Prince over- 
came every other consideration: she knelt before him and de- 
clared her readiness to die in the attempt to save him. The 
Prince raised her from her kneeling posture, and assured her 
"he would always retain a deep sense of so conspicuous a ser- 
vice." 

On the same day she returned to Milton in order to make 
arrangements for conveying the Prince from the Island of Uist 
to Skye. The day following, June 21st, 1Y46, she attempted 
to cross over to Ormaclade, the seat of Clanranald, but being 
unprovided with a passport, was taken prisoner. On being ar- 
rested she refused to answer any questions, and demanded to 
be led to the ofiicer in command. Her request was denied, 
and she was committed to prison for the night. In the morn- 
ing she was conducted into the presence of the Commander, 
who proved to be her own step-father, Hugh McDonald of Ar- 
madale, to whose house in Skye she expressed a strong desire 
to go, in order to avoid unpleasant and annoying encounters 
with the soldiers then in the Island of Uist. 

To this natural request her step-father readily assented, and 
furnished her with a passport for herself, and !N'eill McEachin 
McDonald, who acted as her servant. (He was the father of 
Marshal McDonald, Duke of Tarentum, one of iN'apoleon's ablest 
generals.) Another passport was also obtained for Betty Burke, 
an Irish girl whom she had met on the isle, and wished to car- 



9 

rj to her mother in Skje, to assist in spinning flax and to be 
company for them in the absence of tlie master of the house. 
So reasonable and natural were all the requests made by Flora, 
that her father unhesitatingly granted them, and in addition 
addressed a letter to his wife assigning reasons for sending 
Flora from the island, and recommending to her attention the 
spinning qualities of Betty Burke, with leave to hire and em- 
ploy her until his return. 

After obtaining the passports. Flora conveyed a message to 
the Prince at Corrodale, informing him that all was well, and 
requesting him to meet her at Rosinish, in Benbecula. In the 
meantime she visited Lady Clanranald of Ormaclade, who sup- 
plied her with clothes suitable for an Irish servant girl, in which 
she designed to disguise the Prince. The dress consisted of "a 
flowered linen gown, sprigged v»ith blue, a light quilted gar- 
ment, a cap and apron, and a mantle of dun colored camlet, 
made after the Irish fashiun with a hood." 

She next hired a six oared boat to carry herself, her servant 
maid, and waiting boy across to Skye, and designated the time 
and place to meet her. 

Accompanied by her waiting boy, JSTeill McEachin McDon- 
ald, and Lady Clanranald of Ormaclade, she set out for the 
wilds of Benbecula, whither the Prince had preceded her. They 
found him preparing his own dinner, which consisted of the 
humblest fare. 

At dinner. Flora occupied a seat on the Prince's right hand, 
and Lady Clanranald on his left. After dinner. Flora aston- 
ished the Prince by presenting to him the dress in which she 
designed his escape should be efi^ected, and informed him that 
he must assume the character of Betty Burke, her servant maid, 
80 as to suit the passport she had obtained for him. The Prince 
appreciated the ingenuity of the plan, and, to the merriment of 
the ladies, soon appeared transformed into a rather awkward 
lady's maid. 

Scarcely was the metamorphosis complete, when a messen- 
ger announced that Captain Ferguson with his troops had ar- 
rived, and in the absence of Lady Clanranald, had quartered 
himself at Ormaclade, which made it absolutely necessary that 
she should hasten back in order to avert suspicion. 



10 

She accordingly took an affectionate leave of the Prince, and 
left her kinswoman, the heroic Flora, alone and unaided to 
work out his escape. The soul of Flora knew no fear, she rose 
superior to the emergency, and in none of the trying scenes of 
her eventful life does she appear to more advantage than in 
that which followed the departure of Lady Clanranald. 

Captain O'Neill had been the inseparable companion of his 
Prince from the time he started upon his romantic expedition, 
and in every emergency, since his defeat, had shown talents 
and sentiments that did him honor. 

He insisted on accompanying the Prince, who in turn re- 
fused to be separated from his faithful follower. At this junc- 
ture. Flora proved the inflexibility of her will as well as the 
sagacity of her judgment, and informed them that as she had 
only passports for three, the attempt of a fourth to escape would 
jeopardize the lives of the whole. To this reasoning the Prince 
and O'JSTeill yielded, and in the most affectionate manner em- 
braced and separated. 

On the same evening. Flora, Keill McEachin and the Prince 
proceeded to the sea-shore, which they reached wet and wea- 
ried, and passed the night upon a rock, w^aiting for the arrival 
of the boat which Flora had engaged; but as it did not come, 
and the air grew chilly as the night advanced, they ventured 
to kindle a fire, by which to warm themselves and to dry their 
saturated clothes. But no sooner had they reclined upon the 
heath around the cheering blaze, than four wherries filled with 
armed men were seen approaching, which compelled them to 
extinguish the fire and seek shelter among "the bonnie bloom- 
ing heather." Fortunately no landing was effected or search 
made, for in a short time the wherries tacked, and passed within 
gun shot of the place where the Prince, Flora, and the faithful 
McEachin w^ere concealed. During the whole of the next day 
they were compelled to take shelter among the mountains of 
that "rock-girt sea," but in the evening, their boat having ar- 
rived. Flora and the Prince, wuth indescribable sensations, set 
sail from Benbecula to Skye. 

The evening of their departure was calm, clear and serene, 
and a gentle and favorable breeze rippled over the bosom of 
the sea; but as they proceeded, the sky began to lower, the 



11 

wind rose, the billows rolled mountain high and threatened to 
engulf their little boat. 

The even temper of the Prince, which no reverse of fortune 
could ruffle, rose superior to the elements, and to cheer and an- 
imate the sailors, he narrated incidents of naval valor and sung 
the songs of the British Isle. 

The gentle and devoted Flora, feeling that her watchful care 
was not then of any avail in her Prince's behalf, closed her eyes 
in sleep, and restored tired nature, and prepared herself for the 
discharge of the responsibilities of the following day. "While 
she slept, the Prince kept watch, and took every precaution to 
prevent her slumber being disturbed. 

To add to their anxieties, when day dawned no land was vis- 
ible, and being without a compass, they knew not where they 
were, nor where to steer. But ''there's a Divinity that shapes 
our ends, rough hew them as we may." The seamen steered 
at random, and in a short time their hearts were cheered by 
beholding, in the dim distance, the headlands of Skye; but 
judge of their dismay, when, on reaching the point of Water- 
nish, they were fired upon by the McLeod Militia, and as the 
bullets fell thickly around them, the Prince endeavored to per- 
suade Flora to seek safety by reclining in the bottom of the 
boat, but with a generosity of soul which stamps her among 
the first of her sex, she refused tu do so, declaring she could 
not consult her own safety while his life was in such peril. She 
insisted that he should occupy the place designed for her, and 
as the danger increased, the matter was compromised by both 
taking shelter in the bottom of the boat until it was rowed be- 
yond the reach of danger. 

About noon the boat entered a little creek near Moydhstat 
in Skye, the seat of Sir Alexander McDonald, who, at the time, 
was with the Duke of Cumberland at Fort Augustus, devising 
schemes for the capture of the fugitive Prince, who, under Flo- 
ra's guidance, was seeking an asylum from Lady Margaret Mc- 
Donald, Sir Alexander's wife. This lady was a staunch Jaco- 
bite, and anxious for the escape of the Prince. She was daugh- 
ter of the celebrated Susanna, Countess of Eglintun, whom Dr. 
Johnson has immortalized as a beauty and a wit, and to whom 
Allan Kamsey dedicated his "Pastoral Lays." Lady Margaret 



12 

was exceedingly popular among her husband's tenantry; so 
much so, that when a regiment was raised from among his clan, 
it was styled the Montgomery Highland Kegiment. 

To this lady Flora determined to appeal in order to obtain 
shelter for the Prince during the night; but on reaching the 
castle she was surprised to find Captain McLeod quartered 
there, fully empowered to examine and arrest all suspected 
persons. 

Flora intuitively discovered that the Captain suspected her, 
but instead of seeming unwilling to meet him, she courted his 
society, and, by her eloquent manners and address, so won upon 
him as to be honored by his escort, and assiduous attentions at 
dinner. As soon as the mountain dew was produced. Lady 
McDonald and Flora retired, leaving the gallant Captain to 
preside in the absence of Lord McDonald. 

In the meantime the Prince had been taken to the private 
apartment of Lady McDonald, whither the ladies now withdrew, 
and while deliberating upon the best means of insuring the 
Prince's escape. Captain McLeod knocked for admittance. The 
ready wit of Flora suggested that Betty Burke, as waiting maid^ 
should open the door and slowly retire, and then escape to the 
place of ambush in which she had before left him. The strata- 
gem was successful, the Prince escaped unobserved, and the 
Captain, finding no one there but the two ladies and a servant, 
apologized for his intrusion and retired to the great hall. Lady 
McDonald thereupon called to her counsels her husband's fac- 
tor, Alexander McDonald of Kingsboro', who recommended 
that the Prince and Flora should pass the night with him, at 
his residence fourteen miles distant. 

Accordingly Kingsboro' went in pursuit of the Prince, whilst 
Flora publicly took leave of Lady Margaret, and by her' self- 
possessed manner allayed every vestige of suspicion previously 
entertained by Captain McLeod. 

On the pedestrian tour from Moydhstat to Kingsboro', the 
rain descended in torrents, the mountain streams were full to 
overflowing, and several times the Prince was on the point of 
betraying the fact that the garments he then wore were not his 
accustomed dress, by the awkward manner in which he man- 
aged his skirts. After many hair- breadth escapes, however, 



13 

tliey reached the hospitable mansion of Kingsboro' about mid- 
night, much to the alarm of the lady of the mansion, who feared 
that Flora had acted imprudently in allowing the boat which 
had brought them to Skye to return to Uist, and felt assured 
that on its arrival the royal troops would set out in fresh pursuit. 

In this conjecture the good lady proved correct; but notwith- 
standing this fresh danger, the Prince at a late hour retired to 
rest, and indulged in the only refreshing sleep he had enjoyed 
for months past. In the morning this good lady asked the 
Prince for a lock of his hair, as a memento that he had passed 
the night beneath her roof. 

The Prince playfully assented, and requested Flora to select 
one, which she accordingly did, and divided the royal prize 
between Mrs. McDonald and herself. 

Longer delay at the hospitable mansion of Kingsboro' being 
impossible, and Flora fearing that she cculd not protect her 
charge beneath her mother's roof, determined that he should 
discard his female attire, and, disguised as a farmer, should 
make his escape into the country of the Laird of Kaasay, who 
was then outlawed, and in his mountain home bid defiance to 
tlie troops of Hanover. 

The Prince, accompanied by Flora and her servant boy ITeill 
McEachin, set out for Portree, which they reached, wet, weary 
and down-hearted; but had the good fortune to meet the Mc- 
Leods of Kaasay, ready to carry their Prince into their own 
territory, not only at the risk of their lives, but under a con- 
viction that their daring act would operate as an excuse for the 
confiscation of their entire estate. 

On the morning of the 1st of July 1T46, the Prince bade 
Flora a tender and affecting farewell, ardently thanked her for 
protection during the past ten days, and for having enabled 
him to escape from the w^all of fire by which she had found him 
environed, and which he never could have passed without her 
aid and intrepidity. In affecting tones he told her that he yet 
hoped to meet her at the Court of St. James, when he would 
be able to reward her heroic devotion and loyalty to her van- 
quished Prince Charles Edward. 

History informs us, that though he was denied this high pri- 
yilege, yet he never in after years mentioned the name of hia 



14 

fair protectress, save in terms of the highest admiration and 
affection; and one of Scotland's poets — Aytoun — has given ex- 
pression to the supposed feelings of the Prince, when reflect- 
ing, in after life, upon the services of Flora McDonald, in lines 
so beautiful that I make no apology for quoting them here: 

*'Backwards, backwards, let me wander 

To the noble Northern land: 
Let me feel the breezes blowing 

Fresh along the mountain side — 
Let me see the purple heather, 

Let me hear the thundering tide, 
Be it hoarse as Corrievreckaa 

Spouting when the storm is high. 
Give me but one hour of Scotland, 

Let me s e it ere I die. 
Oh, my heart is sick and heavy, 

Southern gales are not for me; 
Though the glens are white with winter. 

Place me there and set me free. 
Give me back my trusty comrades, 

Give me back my Highland maid — 
No where beats the heart so kindly. 

As beneath the tartan plaid. 
Floral when thou wert beside me. 

In the wilds of far Kintail, 
When the cavern gave us shelter, 

From the blinding sleet and hail — 
When we lurked within the thicket, 

And beneath the waning moon, 
Saw the sentry's bayonet glimmer. 

Heard him chaunt his listless tune — 
When the howling storm o'ertook us. 

Drifting down the island's lee, 
And our crazy bark was whirling 

Like a nutshell on the sea — 
When the nights were da k and dreary, 

And amidst the fern we lay, 
Faint and foodless, sore with travel. 

Waiting for the streaks of day; 
When thou wert an angel to me. 

Watching my exhausted sleep — 
Never diJst thou hear me murmur. 

Couldst thou see how now I weep 
Bitter tears sob of anguish, 

I navailing though they be. 
Oh, the brave! the brave and noble! 

That have died in vain for me!" 



1-5 

On tlie other hand, the Ettrick Shepherd, in lines that can 
never die, has immortalized Flora's parting with the Prince at 
Portree, and causes her to breathe a strain of fervent patriot- 
ism, in which self seems to be forgotten — 

*«Far oyer yon hills of the heather sae green, 

And do-wn by the corrie that sings lo the sea, > 

The bonnie young Flora sat sighing h«»-lwie; ^' C^*^ t^ 

The dew on her plaid, and the tear in her eej 
She looked at a boat in the breezes that swung, 

Away on the wave, like a bird of the main, 
And aye as it lessened she sighed, and she sung, 

Farewell to the lad I shall ne'er see againl 
Farewell to my hero, the gallant and young, 

Farewell to the lad I shall ne'er see again. 
The muir cock that crows on the brow of Ben Connel, 

He kens of his bed in a sweet mossy hame, 
The eagle that soars o'er the cliffs of Clan-Ranald, 

Unawed and unhunted, his eyrie can claim. 
The solan can sleep on the shelve of the shore. 

The cormorant roost on his rock of the sea, 
But, ah, there is one whose hard fate I deplore. 

Nor house, ha', nor hame in his country has he: 
The conflict is past, and our name is no more, 

There's naught left but sorrow for Scotland and me. 

The target is torn from the arm of the just. 

The helmet is cleft on the brow of the brave, 
The claymore forever in darkness must rust, 

But red is the sword of the stranger and slave. 
The hoof of the horse, and the foot of the proud 

Have trod o'er the plumes on the bonnets of blue; 
Why slept the red bolt in the breast of the cloud 

When tyranny revel'd in blood of the true? 
Farewell to my hero, the gallant and good, 

The crown of thy fathers is torn from thy brow." 

On the return of the boat which Plora had employed to con- 
vey her from Uist to Skye, the seamen disclosed their belief 
that "Betty Burke" was the Prince in disguise; whereupon 
troops were despatched to surround him in Skye as he had 
been ^n Uist. But ere this could be effected, the Prince had 
escaped to Kaasay, and ultimately to Prance, and Flora had re- 
turned to her brother's secluded home of Corrodale m Uist. 

On reaching Corrodale she was summoned to appear before 
McLeod, at Tallisker, t , au.wer to the charge of aiding in the 



16 

Prince's escape. Her friends importuned her to secrete her- 
self for a season; this Flora peremptorily refused to do, and, 
unprotected and alone, proceeded to answer the summons. On 
her way to Tallisker, she was met, arrested, and without being 
allowed to take leave of her friends, was carried on board the 
sloop of war Furnace, commanded by Capt. Ferguson. Three 
weeks after she was permitted, under an escort of soldiers, to 
bid her mother adieu, and was grieved to learn from her that 
her step father was implicated in her oifence, and that it was 
generally believed that he knew that the passport he gave his 
daughter for "Betty Burke" was designed for the Prince. This 
Flora boldly denied, and declared that the entire blame rested 
on her, and her alone. 

At her urgent entreaty, Kate McDonald was allowed to ac- 
company her as her servant maid. Flora was again carried on 
board the "Furnace," but in a short time was deemed a State 
prisoner of so much importance, as to be exchanged to a vessel 
commanded by Commodore Smith, who proved himself a kind- 
hearted and humane man, and deeply sympathized with his fair 
captive in her distress. By his position and influence he was ena- 
bled to have her temporarily transferred as a prisoner to Dun- 
staffnage Castle, once a royal residence of the kings of Scotland. 

It stands upon a rocky promontory that juts out into the lake 
Etire, and is one of the most secluded and solemn places that 
nature, in all the rugged grandeur of those regions, can pre- 
sent. The ancient magnificence of the palace had passed away, 
long before Flora became an inmate of its walls for rescuing 
from captivity and death the last of the Stuart race — a Prince 
whose fathers had long held sway in Oban. 

In September, she was again placed on shipboard, and car- 
ried to Leith Koads, where she was tossed in one of England's 
"naval palaces" until the month of November. During this 
time, the fame of the modest Highland lass, who enabled Prince 
Charles Edward to elude his foes, had spread throughout the 
land, and hundreds came from Edinburgh, the metropolis of 
Scotland, to see and converse with the Scottish heroine. Among 
the number were Bishop Forbes, Lady Bruce, Lady Cochran 
and Lady Clarke, the latter of whom, in her enthusiastic desil-e 
to do her honor, was "willing to wipe her shoes;" 



17 

On the 27th of IS'ovember 1746, having been detained in: 
captivity in Scotland for four months, she was placed on board 
the "Royal Sovereign," and carried to London to await her 
trial on a charge of treason. On reaching London, Govern- 
ment discovered that so deeply was the sympathy of the people 
excited on behalf of the young, beautiful and heroic Flora, that 
it was not best to commit her to a common jail, or within the 
tower, and wisely determined to place her in the custody of 
some friends, who would be responsible for her appearance, 
and yet allow Government an oversight and knowledge of her 
correspondence and actions. In this mitigated imprisonment, 
Flora remained a State prisoner in London about twelve months, 
until, in 1747, an act of indemnity was passed, which set her 
free, and permitted her to return to her "native Highland 
home." 

During her long imprisonment, she maintained a cheerful 
temper, an easy, elegant and winning address; whilst a subdued 
and modest gravity deepened the interest excited by her sim- 
ple, artless character. It is related of her, that upon one occa- 
sion, Frederick, Prince of Wales, demanded of her, how she 
dared to aid a rebel against his father's throne? with great sim- 
plicity she replied, that she would have done the same for him, 
had she found him in like distress. An answer which con- 
quered his resentment and converted him into a stedfast friend. 
After her liberation. Flora remained for a time the guest of 
Lady Primrose, and crowds of the higher class came to pay 
their tribute of respect to the lovely heroine. Her picture was 
painted for Commodore Smith, and copies were soon scattered 
throughout the kingdom; and she alone could not understand 
why such a simple act should produce so much excitement, or 
give her so great celebrity. 

Flora soon became wearied with the attention paid her in 
London, and her heart pined for the less marked but more gen- 
uine evidences of kindness and affection, which she knew await- 
ed her beneath her brother's roof at Corrodale, and her mother's 
mansion in the isle of Skye. 

In after life l^eill McDonald was accustomed to say, he had 
gone to London to be hanged, but, instead, was honored by be- 
ing sent home in a coach and four, with Flora McDonald as 
his companion. 



18 

In 1750, Flora McDonald was married to Alexander McDon- 
ald of Kingsboro', son of Kingsboro' who bad aided in the 
Prince's escape. Boswell tells us that Flora's husband "was 
completely the figure of a gallant highlander, exhibiting the 
graceful mien, and manly looks, which our popular Scotch song 
has justly attributed to that character. He had his tartan plaid 
thrown around him, a large blue bonnet with a knot of black 
ribbon like a cockade, a brown short coat, a tartan waistcoat 
with gold buttons, and gold button-holes, a blueish philibeg, 
and tartan hose. He had jet black hair tied behind, and was 
a large stately man, with a steady sensible countenance." 

Such is a description of the man to whom Flora yielded her 
heart and hand, when in the thirtieth year of her age; the same 
to whom, in 1Y76, Governor Martin designed to give the chief 
command of the royal troops in North Carolina. Soon after 
her marriage, her husband's father died, and Flora, with her 
husband, removed to the Kingsboro' estate, and thus spent a 
portion of her matrimonial life in the house where she had found 
one night's rest for the wandering Prince, and where she and 
her husband hospitably entertained Dr. Johnson and his friend 
Boswell, while on their Highland tour, — a tour of which Court- 
ney says; 

"We see the Rambler with fastidious smile 
Mark the lone tree, and note the heath-clad isle, 
But when the heroic tale of Flora charms, 
Decked in a kilt, he wields a chieftain's arms; 
The tuneful piper sounds a martial strain, 
And Samuel sings, 'The king shall have his ain.'" 

In writing to Mrs. Thrale, Johnson says — "Flora told me, she 
thought herself honored by my visit; and I am sure, whatever 
regard she bestowed on me, was liberally repaid. If thou likest 
her opinion, thou wilt praise her virtues." He was permitted 
to sleep on the same bed, in the same room, in which the Prince 
had slept in 1746. The room was decorated with a great vari- 
ety of maps and prints. In the morning he left a strip of pa- 
per with these words in pencil: "Quantum cedat virtutibus au- 
rum" — which Boswell has translated — "With virtue weighed, 
what worthless trash is gold." A high compliment, coming as 
it does from the great English moralist. 



19 

At tlie time of this visit, it was known tliat Kingsboro' was 
embarrased in his pecuniary affairs, and contemplated migrat- 
ing to ^North Carolina, in the hope of repairing his condition 
and estate, which, during his father's life-time, had suffered 
from his exertions in his Prince's cause, and for which he lost 
his place as Factor in the management of his chief's estate. 

The difficulties in which her husband was involved only serv- 
ed to test the true nobleness of Flora's character, and enabled 
her to show that she who had risked her life for her Prince, 
could sacrifice her rights and her fortune for a husband's com- 
fort, despite the marriage contract, which declared her maiden 
land to be her own, beyond the control of her husband — a mar- 
riage contract, the original of which was in the possession of 
Sir Walter Scott at the time of his death. In 1774, Flora Mc- 
Donald and her husband sailed from Campbelltown, Kintire, 
for Wilmington, I^orth Carolina, on board the good ship ''Bali- 
ol." One of their fellow-passengers, Bethune, died only about 
"Q-ve years siuQe. 

The fame of her earlier years had preceded her to the West- 
ern World, and upon her arrival in Wilmington a ball was 
given in her honor, which she graced with her presence, and 
took pleasure in the degree of attention paid to her eldest daugh- 
ter, Anne, who was just blushing into womanhood, and bore a 
striking resemblance to her mother when at the same age. 

On her arrival at Cross Creek she received a truly Highland 
welcome from her old neighbors and kinsfolk, who had prece- 
ded her but a few years. The strains of the Pibroch and the 
martial airs of her native land greeted her on her approach to 
the capital of the Scotch settlement. In that village she re- 
mained some time, visiting and receiving visits from friends, 
whilst her husband went to the western part of Cumberland, 
in (juest of land. On visiting Mrs. Kutherford, afterwards Mrs. 
McAuslin, who lived at that time in a house known as the Stu- 
art place, north of the Presbyterian church, she saw a painting 
which represented ''Anne of Jura" assisting in the Prince's 
escape. "Turn the face of that picture to the wa'," said she, in 
her clear, soft accents, "never let it see the light again; it belies 
the truth of history, Annei of Jura was na' there, and did na' 
help the bonnie Prince." 

For a time she resided at Cameron's Hill in Cumberland, and 



20 

attended preacliing at Long Street and Barbecne, two Presby- 
terian cliurcbes, then supplied by the Kev. Mr. McLeod. 

In 1775, her daughter Anne married Alexander McLeod of 
Glendale, Moore county, who subsequently distinguished him- 
self in the European wars, and rose to the rank of Major Gen- 
eral in the British service. This daughter died some years 
ago at Stein, Scotland. In 1775 Governor Martin determined 
to raise from among the Scotch Plighlanders a body of men 
to be sent to Boston and mustered into the Eoyal Highland 
Emigrant Regiment, the better to enable General Gage 
to look down all opposition there. Seeing the distinction and 
honor which all classes of Highlanders awarded to Flora and 
her husband Kingsboro', the crafty Governor resolved to invest 
him with the chief command, and accordingly granted him the 
commission of Brigadier General. 

In order to assemble the Scotch, balls were given in differ^ 
ent parts of the settlement, some of which Flora attended with 
her daughter, now Mrs. McLeod, and her younger daughter 
Fanny. Upon these occasions Anne and Fanny reigned su- 
preme, and bore off the honors of the ball room. . 

Early in January 1776 Kingsboro' McDonald purchased a 
tract of land from Caleb Touchstone, on the borders of Rich-- 
mond and Montgomery counties, and named the place Killie- 
gray. Here two of Flora's children died, and the present own- 
er, McLelland, keeps a spot fenced in, sacred to the memory 
of Flora's offspring. 

"When the royal banner was unfurled at Cross Creek in 1776, 
and the loyalist army marched towards Brunswick, under the 
command of Brigadier General Donald McDonald, an officer 
sent by General Gage, who ranked Kingsboro', Flora's hus- 
band, she, with the true devotion of a wife, followed her hus- 
band, and encamped one night on the brow of Haymount, ijear 
the site of the United States Arsenal. In the morning when 
the army took up its line of march, midst banners streaming in 
the breeze and martial music floating on the air. Flora em- 
braced her husband, and tears dimmed her eyes as she breathed 
a fervent prayer for his safe and sj)eedy return to her new home 
at Killiegray. In company with Malcolm McKay, then six- 
teen years of age, she retraced her steps towards home, and 
spent the first night with McKay's mother at Longstreet. 



21 

The defeat of the loyalist army, and the capture of her hus^ 
band at Moore's Creek, struck a knell of woe to the heart of 
Flora. Of her five sons, Charles, James and John were in the 
British army, and Kanald and Sandy were in the naval service 
of England; and of her numerous family none except her daugh- 
ter Fanny was at home, and she too young to sympathize with 
or console her mother in her deep distress. Flora remained a 
year or two at Killiegray, making frequent visits to Cross 
Creek, where she was always sure of receiving a hearty welcome. 

After many and various difficulties witii the Whig scouts, 
Captain Ingram (a whig) granted her a passport in 1779, by 
which she was enabled to reach Fayetteville and Wilmington; 
thence she made her way to Charleston, from which port she 
sailed for her native land, leaving her husband a prisoner in 
Halifax jail, and her five sons actively engaged against the 
Whig cause. This step she took at the entreaty of her husband, 
whom she was not permitted to visit, and for the benefit of her 
daughter's health. On the passage, the vessel was attacked by 
a French cruiser; during the engagement Flora refused to go 
below, and remained on deck, urging the men to deeds of dar- 
ing. Her arm was broken in the fight, and she was accustomed 
to say, that she had fought for the House of Stuart and for the 
House of Hanover, but had been worsted each time. 

Two letters written by Flora McDonald in 1780 and 1782, 
and published in the Jacobite Memoirs, — written whilst her 
husband was in prison and her sons still engaged in war, when 
she was sixty years old, — show that she was an accomplished 
woman, an affectionate mother and devoted wife, and that the 
BOifrce of her cheerful temper and serenity of mind was a well 
grounded faith in the goodness and mercy of that Being whom 
she served and was willing to trust in all the affairs of life. 

BuNVEGAN, 24th July 1780. 

Dear Madam: I arrived at Inverness the third day after parting vv^ith you, 
in good health, and without any accidents which I always dread; my young 
'Squire continued always very obliging and attentive to me. I stayed at In- 
verness for three days. I had the good luck to meet with a female companion 
from that to Skye. I was the fourth day with great difficulty at Raasay, for 
my hands being so pained with the riding. 

I have the pleasure to inform you, upon my arrival here, that I had two let- 
ters from my husband, the latter dated tenth May. He was then in very good 
health, and informs me that my son Charles has got the command of a troop 



bf iioi-se in Lord Cathcart's regiment. But alas! I have heard nothing sin66 I 
left you about my son Sandy, which you may be sure gives me uneasiness; but 
still hope for the best. 

By public and private news, I hope we will soon have peace re-established, to 
our great satisfaction, which as it is a thing long expected and wished for, will 
be for the utility of the whole nation; especially to poor me that has my all 
engaged — fond to hear news, but afraid to get it. 

I wait here till a favorable opportunity for the Long Island shall offer itself. 
As I am upon all occasions under the greatest obligations to you, would you 
get a letter from my son Johnny sooner than I would get one from him, you 
would very much oblige me by dropping a few lines communicating to me the 
most material part of his letter. 

I hope you and the ladies of your family will always accept of my kindest 
respects, and I am ever, with esteem, dear Madam, your affectionate, humble 
servant, FLORA McDONALD. 

Please direct to me, to Mrs. McDonald late of Kingsboro', South Uist by 
Dunvegan. 

Milton, 3d July 1782. 

Dear Madam: I received your agreeable favor a fortnight agOj and am hap- 
py to find that your health is not worse than when I left you. I return you 
my sincere thanks for your being so mindful of me as to send me the agreeable 
news about Johnny's arrival, which relieved me from a great deal of distress, 
as that was the first accounts I had of hiin since he sailed. I think, poor man! 
he has been very lucky for getting into bread so Soon after landing. I had a 
letter from John which I suppose came by the same conveyance with yours. I 
am told by others that it will be in his power now to show his talents, as being 
in the engineer department. He speaks feelingly of the advantages he got in 
his youth, and the good example showed him, which I hope will keep him from 
doing anything that is either sinful or shameful. 

I received a letter from Captain McDonald, my husband", dated from Halifax, 
the twelfth of November, '82; he was then recovering his health, but had been 
very tender for some time before. My son Charles is Captain in the British 
Legion, and James a Lieutenant in the same; they are both in New York. 
Ranald is Captain of Marines and was with Rodney at the taking of St. 
Eustatia. As for my son Sandy, who was a-missing, I had accounts of his 
being carried to Lisbon, but nothing certain, which I look upon the whole as 
hearsay; but the kindness of Providence is still to be looked upon, and I have 
no reason to complain, as God has been pleased to spare his father and the 
rest. I am now at my brother's house on my way to Skye, to my daughter's. 
They are all in health at present. As for my health, it is tolerable, consider- 
ing my anxious niind, and distress of times. 

It gives me a great deal of pleasure to hear such good accounts of young Mr. 
McKinnie; no doubt he has a great debt to pay who represents his worthy and 
atniable uncle. 

I hope you will be so good as to remember me to your female companions. 

I do not despair of the pleasure of seeing you once more if peace was re- 
Btored: and I am, dear madam, with respect and esteem, your affectionate friend, 

FLORA McDonald, 



23 

After peace was restored, her husband was liberated, and 
returned from I^Torth Carolina to Skye, where he lived com- 
fortably and happily, enjoying the society of his wife, until 
Death claimed him for his own, and he was laid to rest in the 
Kingsboro' burying ground. A few years after, 5th March 
1Y90, Flora McDonald breathed her last. Her remains were 
interred in the Church yard of Kilmuir in Skye, within a 
square piece of brick wall, which encloses the tombs of the 
McDonalds of Kingsboro'. The funeral was attended by at 
least four thousand persons. A great number of Pipers as- 
sembled, and simultaneously played the usual lament for de- 
parted greatness. Three hundred gallons of the purest "moun- 
tain dew'^ was served out to the assembled multitude. 

A marble slab was provided, with a suitable inscription by 
her son, Col. McDonald, but it was broken in being conveyed 
to the cemetery, and every fragment has been carried away by 
tourists anxious to possess some relic of the heroic Flora; and 
though it is from characters such as hers that Scotland's gran- 
deur springs, which makes her "loved at home, revered abroad," 
yet to Scotland's shame be it spoken, not even a simple stone 
marks the last resting place of the gentle Flora. Despite this 
neglect, however, she sleeps well by the side of him, whom in 
life she honored with her hand, and on whom for thirty- six 
years, she had lavished all the wealth, and generous impulses 
of a truly noble loving heart, and though no sculptured urn or 
animated bust ever should arise to point the traveller to her 
lonely grave, yet her character and virtues will lead millions 
o'er those heath-clad Jiills, upon a solemn pilgrimage, to that 
sacred shrine, where they can muse upon her goodness and 
emphatically realize the poet's estimate of woman — 

"Honored be woman, she beams on our sJght, 

Graceful and fair, like a being of ligbt, 

She scatters around her, wherever she strays, 

Roses of bliss on our thorn-covered ways, 

Roses of Paradise sent from above, 

To be gathered, and twined in a garland of love." 

The incidents in the life of Flora McDonald are so numerous, 
that I have refrained from attempting a formal delineation of 
her character, believing that a simple narrative, a plain un- 



24 

varnished tale would best portray those qualities, for which 
she is distinguished and celebrated throughout the world. 

To her very last, a spirit of romantic interest manifested it»- 
self in everything connected with Prince Charles Edward, and 
she requested, when her eyes should be closed, and her lips 
sealed in death, in addition to the usual dress, her body should 
be enfolded in one of the sheets in which the Prince had slept 
at the house of Kingsboro', in 1Y46, which had been the 
companion of all her travels and religiously and faithfully 
guarded by her in ISTorth Carolina, during the Eevolutionary 
war; which is now enveloped in a halo of romance; and has 
twice passed through Fayetteville and Wilmington, thousands 
of miles distant from the scene of its last sad office in the Isle 
of Skye, where it enshrouds all that is mortal of the immortal 
Plora, who sleeps the sleep of death in her native land, beneath 
her native skies, far, far from Cross Creek and I^orth Carolina, 
names with which her name is indissolubly associated. 

Hugh McDonald, Esq., of Monkstadt, one of the most exten- 
sive farmers in Skye, is a grand nephew of Flora McDonald, 
and is in possession of the habit skirt worn by Prince Charles 
when disguised in female apparel. 

In reflecting on the career of Flora McDonald, I have some- 
tim.es thought that it must have been consonant with her own 
feelings, that she should meet death in the isle of Skye, the 
island where she had found shelter for her wandering Prince, 
in sight of whose sublime mountains, visible from her home in 
Uist, her young years sped away. 

I have likewise felt that it was appropriate and suitable, that 
her grave should be where it is, on the shore of that ocean over 
which, in her maiden years, she had guided her youthful Prince 
on that dark and stormy night, and that in return for the heroic 
act, it was right that the same ocean's roar, the last sound that 
died upon her ear in life, should first greet it on the morning 
of Eternity, chanting a solemn anthem in words and tones, 
clear, audible and distinct. 

Flora McDonald was good as well as great, pious, as well as 
patriotic. 



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